Violence and drug trade threatens Afghan peace: Annan

The forthcoming elections - and lasting peace - in Afghanistan is being threatened by rising extremist violence, factionalism and the burgeoning illicit drug industry, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said.

Violent attacks and cross-border infiltrations have increased, especially in Afghanistan's south, he said and these activities are "effectively depriving many communities of the benefits of economic and political reconstruction".

Violence - both terrorist and criminal - is carried out "with seeming impunity" resulting in "the loss of too many Afghan lives and increasingly of those of international assistance workers," he added.

But he said that the high rate of voter registrations - more than 9.9 million people have now enrolled, with 41% of them female - showed that the groups responsible for the violence are politically isolated ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls.

The voter registrations are "a clear response to the efforts of the Taliban and other extremist groups to derail the elections and to exclude women from public life", Mr Annan added in his report to the Security Council.

But he noted that registration remains uneven in some provinces because potential voters and electoral workers have been deterred by the threat of violence.

The Secretary-General said Afghanistan's illicit drug trade is burgeoning, with at least one initiative by the country's authorities to eradicate opium poppy fields "largely ineffective". As a result, corruption caused by the drug trade is also on the rise.

However, Mr Annan said he was encouraged by Nato's recent decision to commit more troops to stabilizing the country.

(gmcg)